430 Transactions.—Botany, 
from pinna to pinna the whole length of the stipe and rachis, each mark or 
dash, 6-8 lines long, having an interval or break of 1-2 lines; densely 
covered with long brown shining linear scales 13-2 inches long and nearly 
1 line wide at the base, curved transparent acuminate and pointed, 
beautifully and regularly marked, with finely serrulate edges, and having 
beneath them a thick rough plush-like undergrowth of blackish-brown 
shining finely barbed or jagged hairs. 
Rachis and subrachis muricate, also densely covered with a thick coating 
of short dark plush-like hairs, which easily rub off; above, together with 
the coste and costules densely hirsute (dark) and woolly (light-coloured), 
Pinne alternate, 23-26 jugate, oblong-lanceolate, petiolate, (central) 
2 feet 6 inches long, 10-12 inches broad, 6-7 inches distant (lower 10 
inches) on rachis. 
Secondary divisions or pinnules alternate, 30-32 jugate, linear-oblong 
acuminate and sub-caudate, 5-6 inches long, 1-14 inches broad, petiolate, 
pinnate, thickly covered below with jagged acuminate shining silky light- 
coloured scales, each being curiously sprinkled with very long dark-brown 
hairs. 
Segments alternate, 80-32 jugate, close set, linear, sub-falcate, crenately- 
serrate, 9 lines long, 2-3 lines broad, widest at base, lowermost sub- 
pinnatifid petiolate and auricled downwards, barren ones broader, deeply 
serrate or sub-pinnatifid. 
Veins very numerous, conspicuous and translucent, bi-pinnately branched; 
venules 10-12 in each lower lobe, and running quite out into the margin. 
Sort numerous, crowded, 12-16 on a segment, one on each lobe; invo- 
lucre globose, transparent green and hyaline at first, afterwards light-brown, 
«splitting irregularly. 
This tree-fern is a fine and graceful species; one that at first sight, and 
without examination, may be easily mistaken for C. medullaris, which it 
much resembles,—but differs from that species in its general hairiness and 
and woolliness, in its larger size of frond (breadth, etc.) and richer appear- 
ance, in its pleasing grass-green colour, its truly pinnate segments, its 
peculiar hairy scales and its numerous pinnate veins,—these last two marks 
being its specifie characteristies, and its very numerous veins or venules in 
a lobe, the origin of its trivial name. 
I have known this fern for some 10-12 years at least. In 1865-6 I 
found a young plant growing here on my ground (Scinde Island, Napier) 
among the common fern ( Pteris esculenta), and removed it to my garden, 
where it has done exceedingly well, although last summer it suffered from 
the very long drought. At first, and for some years, I had supposed it to 
be Cyathea medullaris, but for the last four years, during which it has borne 
fruit abundantly, I have believed it to be a new and distinct species; having 
